The Future Of Dropbox On XP

[cc333]

I read that Dropbox recently ended support for Windows XP, but I want to use it anyway because I'm gradually shunning everything MS has made since (except maybe Windows Vista and 7 )

I came across a hack that allowed the application to work on Mac OS X Leopard (which became unsupported sometime last year), so in principle it should be possible to do the same for XP.

Sooo... anyone done it yet?

c

[Dibya]

57 minutes ago, cc333 said:

I read that Dropbox recently ended support for Windows XP, but I want to use it anyway because I'm gradually shunning everything MS has made since (except maybe Windows Vista and 7 )

I came across a hack that allowed the application to work on Mac OS X Leopard (which became unsupported sometime last year), so in principle it should be possible to do the same for XP.

Sooo... anyone done it yet?

c

can you extract and check dropbox exe file whether it has any dependency , i will add it to kernel?

[cc333]

I don't have to do that; the executables themselves run fine. They're just being artificially blocked from accessing Dropbox's servers. I suspect there's a version check of some kind, and if it reports that it's running on XP, it will not connect. If we can fake the version being reported, I think it will work. Problem is, I don't know how to do it.

c

[jumper]

Use Dependency Walker or another PE viewer to check Dropbox.exe for Kernel32.dll imports such as: GetVersion, GetVersionExA, GetVersionExW, VerifyVersionInfoA, VerifyVersionInfoW....

Say Dropbox.exe calls GetVersion. Dropbox.exe can be hexed to import GetVerWin7 instead, and Dibya can create a GetVerWin7 function that claims the OS is Windows 7.

[cc333]

OK. I'll give that a try tomorrow when I'm home.

c

[sdfox7]

I archived 3.18.1 back in April when it was first announced that XP would be losing support. I don't know if you require the latest version, but it doesn't appear the old ones are maintained by DropBox. The release notes complain that you must be running Vista or higher.

http://sdfox7.com/xp/sp3/EOL/Dropbox 3.18.1 Offline Installer.exe

The original link was https://clientupdates.dropboxstatic.com/client/Dropbox 3.18.1 Offline Installer.exe which longer works. It's available officially from the Internet Archive, aka Wayback Machine:

https://web.archive.org/https://clientupdates.dropboxstatic.com/client/Dropbox 3.18.1 Offline Installer.exe

[cc333]

Would that version be exempt from the seemingly arbitrary block?

I suppose the only way to find out would be to give it a try.

c

[jaclaz]

At the light of this (Mac OsX news):

http://applehelpwriter.com/2016/07/28/revealing-dropboxs-dirty-little-security-hack/
 

http://applehelpwriter.com/2016/08/29/discovering-how-dropbox-hacks-your-mac/
 

maybe if it is discontinued on XP would not be that bad. 

jaclaz
 

[Dave-H]

I've got version 2.10.52.0 of the Dropbox program installed.
I haven't used it for ages, although I do have some files stored there.
I just tried it, and was prompted to log in, and was then just told "your computer is not longer supported".

I guess if I still want to use Dropbox I can just install the latest version on the Windows 8.1 side of my machine, but it would be interesting to know if this seemingly arbitrary block on XP machines can be worked around.

 

[dencorso]

I bet some patching or spoof will be found quite soon. There are just too many XP users still around and Dropbox is a quite popular aplication for it not to happen.

[Mcinwwl]

@Dave-HStill can download your files using webpage. Just reminding :>

[cc333]

18 hours ago, jaclaz said:

At the light of this (Mac OsX news):

http://applehelpwriter.com/2016/07/28/revealing-dropboxs-dirty-little-security-hack/
 

http://applehelpwriter.com/2016/08/29/discovering-how-dropbox-hacks-your-mac/
 

maybe if it is discontinued on XP would not be that bad. 

jaclaz
 

You know, that is a very good point. After reading those articles, I don't feel much like using it anymore (it reaffirms my distrust in "The Cloud"), and deleting the application from all my Macs. Maybe it being discontinued on XP is a blessing in disguise, then? Then again, perhaps it doesn't to that on Windows? If it hacks up OS X (which is generally thought to be relatively secure), then it's probably doing all kinds of nasty things behind the scenes on Windows as well.

And I can indeed use a browser to upload/download stuff, and that's probably what I'll do going forward.

So, at this point, this is no longer something I want to do for myself, but I will continue researching it, as it's educational, and it may help out anyone else who might be stuck on XP, by necessity or by choice, and requires the application for whatever reason.

c

[Dave-H]

9 minutes ago, Mcinwwl said:

@Dave-HStill can download your files using webpage. Just reminding :>

Thanks, yes I was aware of that.
As far as I'm concerned that makes the Dropbox app's refusal to connect on an XP system even more of a nonsense!

 

[cc333]

1 minute ago, Dave-H said:

As far as I'm concerned that makes the Dropbox app's refusal to connect on an XP system even more of a nonsense!

Indeed!

It's like Apple arbitrarily dropping support for perfectly fine machines. For example, my 2008 Mac Pro was dropped from the latest release, even though all hardware aside from the WiFi card is perfectly compatible. To add insult to injury, I bought a 2009 Mac Pro to replace it, and that isn't supported either. But, if I simply update the firmware to make it look like a 2010 Mac Pro, it's suddenly fully supported! The bloody hardware is identical!!!

c

Edited September 10, 2016 by cc333

[Dave-H]

Well that didn't take too long to fix!
I now have version 9.4.49 running quite happily on XP, and the only thing you have to do to make it communicate with the Dropbox servers is run the executable in compatibility mode for Windows 2000!

So, it looks as if it looks specifically for XP and blocks it, but an even older OS is perfectly acceptable!
Go figure!

I found that with a bit of research of course, I didn't find the answer all by myself!
It won't let you in with an old version of the client, so what I had to do was uninstall my version 2.10.52.0, and then find a copy of 3.18.1, which may well be the last that will install on XP from my researches. It installed fine, but still wouldn't let me in because it still said it was an old version, but then, lo and behold, it updated itself to 9.4.49 (the current version) and just carried on working.
So, normal Dropbox service resumed, at least for the moment!
As always, there's no way of knowing how long this will last for, but I'm very pleased that it's OK again for the moment!